Wednesday, December 25, 2002

I went to a church service last night. I found the service a bit unsatisfying, as it was mostly in Chinese, making the service more of a language exercise than a spiritual one. I couldn't remember the lyrics to "Doxology" (yes, I haven't been to church in awhile), "Joy to the World," and "O Little Town of Bethlehem," so I followed along in the Chinese hymnal and sang the occasional word that I could read. The one song that they did have the English lyrics to, "O Holy Night," ended up being a solo. Fortunately, the sermon was in English, and from the Chinese translation, I learned a new word, zhi hui, which means wisdom. Lessons from the sermon: wisdom is absent when there is pride, as wisdom comes with humility. And Henry David Thoreau once said, "it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things."